Cod Fish Rice

Reyon and I having this for our Mother's Day Dinner. This is one of Reyon's favourite "1 Dish Meal" despite that he is not really keen on fish. There is two different way that you can make this dish depend on which type you prefer?


As usual I cooked the rice using the soup base instead of water so that Reyon will get most of the nutrition from the soup. Then I coat the marinated fish fillet with cornflour then pan-fry in until golden brown and almost cooked through then I place it on top of the bubbling rice and let it continue to cook through so that the fish oil and fragrant will combine well with the rice.

Ingredients:
1 Or 2 pieces Of Cod Fish Fillet, without bone part
1/2 Tablespoon Of Cooking Wine
1 Teaspoon of Light Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon Of Cornflour
3-4 Slices Of Ginger

Methods:
1. Wash and pat dry the fish fillet then marinate it with cooking wine, soy sauce and then coat it with cornflour.
2. Preheat a frying pan with some oil then saute the ginger slices until fragrant then add in the fish, skin side down.
3. Saute it for about 2 minutes till almost golden brown then turn over and repeat the same thing until both side are golden in colour.
4. Place the almost cook fish fillet on top of the bubbling rice which is half way through the cooking time.
5. Leave the fish fillet in the rice cooker until the rice is done.
6. Serve warm with some cucumber and tomato slices. (you can choose to drizzle it with extra BBQ sauce or tomato sauce on the fillet)

Note:
You can replace Cod Fish with Snapper or Salmon depend on your preference.

Our Pre-Mother's Day Dinner

Tomorrow is 11 May 2008 is once a year Mother's Day so my little Darling Reyon insists that we will have these for dinner today to celebrate Mother's Day. Early in the morning, he asked me to go market and buy some fresh prawns to make his favourite Deep-fry Breaded Prawns and some other ingredients to make the ABC Pork Ribs Soup.


ABC Pork Ribs Soup consists of carrot, potato, corn and pork ribs. Reyon loves this soup because of it's natural sweetness and fragrant taste. I purposely boiled extra amount of this soup and use it as a base to cook it with rice so that the white rice will taste even nicer.

Ingredient:
500g Pork Ribs
2 Medium Potato, cut into big chunks
1 Medium Carrot, cut into thick slices
1 Sweet Corn, cut into section
2 Garlic Cloves, lightly smashed
3 Shallots(small red onion), thinly sliced

Methods:
1. Wash and trim the pork ribs then blanch it in boiling water for about 5 minutes, removed and rinse with water then set aside.
2. Use a soup pot, add about 1/2 tablespoon of oil and saute the shallot and garlic for about 2 minutes then add in the carrot, potato and pork ribs and continue to saute till fragrant on low heat for about 5 minutes.
3. Add in about 1 litre of water and bring it to boil then add in the corns.
4. Let it simmer for about 25 - 30 minutes then season it with salt if prefer.(i add in 1/4 of the chicken stock cube)

Notes:

a) I replace the water for cooking rice with the above soup stock to make the rice more fragrant.

This is another one of Reyon's favourite deep-fry food other than chicken wing and nuggets. He loves either traditional Tempura Prawn or this type of Breaded Prawns. He can eat either 3 or 4 of this prawns for his usual meal.

Ingredients:
6 - 8 Medium Size Prawn, shell and devein
3 Tablespoons of Corn Flour
1 Beaten Egg
5 Tablespoons Dry Breadcrumbs(might need more)
Oil For Deep-frying

Methods:
1. Remove the shell from the prawns and keep the tail portion, try to snip two cuts at the base of the prawn so that the prawn will not curl up when deep-fry.
2. Next dry the prawns with kitchen paper towel well so that it will not have any water for safer frying.
3. Coat the prawn with cornflour then deep in beaten egg then coat with breadcrumbs and back to beaten egg then breadcrumbs again then set aside. (you can refer to a similar example here as in cornfour, beaten egg and breadcrumbs)
4. Make sure that the oil is hot before you drop in the coated prawns. Fry a few prawns at a time to avoid over crowded.
5. Fry the prawns till golden brown at medium heat for about 2 - 3 minutes.
6. Drained them well on kitchen paper towel and serve hot so that they will be crispy and nice.

Notes:
a) Select those with hard shell and firm meat type.
b) Remember to dry the prawn really well so that you can achieve a more crispy texture while deep-frying.

Lastly, I want to wish all my blog pals and reader especially those who are already mummy, I sincerely Wish You a HAPPY MOTHER's DAY............

Steam Drunken Prawns

This is a very simple and easy to prepare Steam Herbal Drunken Prawns dish. What you require is some very fresh or even live prawns that you can get hold of in the wet market, some Chinese herbs and cooking wine.


Ingredients: (Serves 2)
300g of Medium Fresh/Live Green Prawn
5 - 6 Slices Of Dang Gui(当归)
5 Red Dates(红枣), seeds removed
1/2 Tablespoon Of Gou Qi Zi(杞子)
50ml Of Hua Diao Jiu

Methods:
1. Pre-soaked the herbs in the hua diao jiu for at least 30 minutes to an hour for the wine to absorb the aroma of the herbs.
2. Trim and wash the prawns then pat dry and arrange them in a steam tray/plate in single layer.(do not overlay them as it will cause uneven cooking time during steaming)
3. Arrange the herbs on top of the prawns and pour over the remaining wine on it.
4. Steam over boiling water for about 4-5 minutes, remove and served immediately.

Note:
If your prawns are kept in the fridge before steaming, remember to remove it from the fridge at least 10 - 15 minutes before hand and to let it cool off and pour away any of the water in the tray or plate before arranging the herbs on top.

Steam Hairy Crabs

This is my 1st time seeing and eating a live Hairy Crab. These are specially air-flown from Hong Kong by one of my hubby colleague. The most simple and delicious method to eat these crabs are by the most origin way which is - STEAM.

You can get fresh and live hairy crab in Singapore during this season from most Cold Storage seafood department or by visiting the distribute in Singapore know as HIGH FRESH(they have different kinds of seafood available for public to purchase)


How to Select A Hairy Crab:
1. It must be alert and have a flat, pentagon-shaped, greenish shell.
2. It's underside should be white and there should be no unpleasant smell.
3. It's claws should be well developed with brownish hair.

Cooking Methods:
1. Wash the crabs thoroughly and place them in a steamer by putting the back facing upwards.
2. Place a slice of ginger on top of each crabs and steam on hot boiling water for 15 minutes then continue to simmer on low heat for another 10 minutes.
3. Remove the top shell of the crab and clear away the black coloured sacs and intestines.
4. Next pulled off the crab legs and take a chopstick and push the meat out.
5. You can either eat the aromatic flesh of the hairy crabs on its own or dip the meat in minced ginger with black vinegar sauce.
6. Ends the meal with ginger tea will make you rebalance the body's yin and yang.

Note:
Do not consume the hairy crabs together with Persimmon, Cold Beer or Cold Water.

Because Hairy Crabs are "Cooling" to the body, it is recommend best to consume one at each meal.

Vietnamese-Style Fried Fish With Lemon Grass

This is a popular dish in South Vietnamese Seaside resorts. You can use either fillet fillets or whole fish for this dish and the seasoning goes well with Salmon Fillets too....


As from the name of this dish, you will know the main spice ingredient used will be Lemon grass. Lemon grass is widely used as an herb in Asian (particularly Thai, Lao, Sri Lankan, Khmer and Vietnamese) and Caribbean cooking. It has a lemon flavour and can be dried and powdered, or used fresh. The stalk itself is too hard to be eaten, except for the soft inner part. However, it can be finely sliced and added to recipes. It may also be bruised and added whole as this releases the aromatic oils from the juice sacs in the stalk.

For this dish, I bought a Yellow Croaker(黄花鱼) which is mainly used for steaming. But it do fixed well in this pan-fried dish and the meat is very tender and fine.

Ingredients:
1 Medium Size Fish or Fish Fillet, about 250g
2 Stalks Lemon Grass Thinly Sliced, white parts only
3 Cloves Garlic, lightly pound
4-5 Shallots, peeled and sliced
1 Large Red Chilli or 2 Small Thai Chillies, deseeded and sliced
1 Tablespoon Sugar
2 Tablespoons Fish Sauce
3 Tablespoons Oil
1/4 Green Lime

Methods:
1. Clean, wash and pat dry the fish. Cut shallow, diagonal slits on both sides of the fish body and place on a large plate.
2. Using a mortar or food processor, pound or blend the lemon grass, garlic, shallots, chilli and sugar to a paste.
3. Add fish sauce and season to taste. Stuffed some of the paste into the stomach of the fish then rub the remaining on both side of the fish and let it marinate for about 1 hour or more.
4. Pour the oil in a large non-stick frying pan on medium heat. Place fish in the pan, cover fried for 1 minutes until skin slightly brown then remove cover and turn to the other side for another 1 minute.
5. Reduce heat to low and carefully turn fish over to cook for another 2 minutes on each other until the skin is golden and crisp and fish is cooked through.
6. Dish and place on plate. Drizzle the pan oil over the fish and square some lime juice over it and serve immediately with rice.

Notes: You can used any kind of fish to your preference, Cod Fish works well with this too.

Hot & Fragrant Snapper

This is a very fragrant and appetizing dish that Tracy had introduce to us. It taste sort of like those Thai dishes because of the lime, kaffir lime leave and fish sauce. You need to blend all the ingredients to create a marinade sauce for the fish and allow it to marinate for a while before grilling it.

For my case, I used White Snapper fish and place it on some banana leaves and grilled until done. You had to serve this dish hot so that the aroma of the marinate will be great on the fish.


Ingredients:
2 Large Fresh Chillies, Roughly Chopped
5 Shallots, Peeled
5 Garlic Cloves, Peeled
2 Tablespoons Lime Juice
2 Tablespoons Thai Fish Sauce
1 Tablespoon Palm Sugar Or Molasses
4 - 6 Kaffir Lime Leaves, Rolled Into Cigarette Shapes And Finely Sliced
1 Trout, About 450g Each, Cleaned

Methods:
1. Wrap the chillies, shallots and garlic cloves in a foil package.
2. Place under a hot grill for 10 minutes, until the vegetables have softened.
3. As soon as the foil package is cool enough to handle, unwrap it and tip the contents into food process.
4. Mix the lime juice, fish sauce, sugar and lime leaves together.
5. Add 1 - 2 teaspoon of the lime juice mixture to the chilli mixture and blend till a paste.
6. Remove the chilli paste and stir well with the rest of the lime juice mixture.
7. With a teaspoon, stuff this paste inside the fish. Smear a little on the skin too.
8. Grill the fish for about 8 minutes on each side, until just cooked through.(the timing depends on the size and the thickness of the fish.)
9. Carefully lift the fish onto a platter. Serve with rice.

Notes:
I used 1 red and two green chilliles.(It all depend whether u want it to be hot or mild)
You can used any type of fish that you prefer like Seabass, Seabream or Snapper.

Steam Cod Fish With Crispy Bean

The very first time I had this similar dish is from Crystal Jade restaurant which is their famous "Steam Fish With Crispy Bean". It was very delicious to go with plain rice. But after searching almost all places for that "crispy bean,豆酥 " sauce, I finally gave up. Because I asked alot of places and they don't seems to know what is this crispy bean. Until recently, I saw one of my friend pamy's blog, she managed to find this bottle crispy bean paste in Cold Storage at Takashimaya. So without any delay, I quickly go and grab a bottle to try out this "Steam Cod Fish With Crispy Bean". Like what pamy mention, this small bottle can only used around 2 to 3 times and it's rather costly.


Ingredients:
1 Piece Of Cod Fillet, about 500g
50g Crispy Minced Bean
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
Some Spring Onion and Chilli, finely chopped

Methods:
1. Rinse cod fish, pat dry and place on a plate.
2. Marinate it with salt for about 10 minutes.
3. Place cod into steamer, steam over high heat for about 10 minutes, remove.
4. Saute the crispy bean in a non-stick pan over low heat until golden and fragrant.
5. Remove and pour over onto the cod, sprinkle with some spring onion and chilli, serve hot.

Notes: Actually there is another type of crispy minced bean(豆酥) which is sold in a ball shape and needs to be ground before use. The finer it is ground the more flavourful the taste it. But too bad, we can't really find it in Singapore. For those who know where to get it, please kindly leave me a message. Thanks.

Deep-Fry Salmon With Special Sauce

Replicate this Salmon Dish from Zur's from the M4M forum, where she used vinegar and light soy sauce to make the seasoning sauce for this dish. Before testing out the dish I am still worrying about the taste due to the use of vinegar. But to my surprise, the sweet and sour sauce was great with the combination of mirin and chillies flakes. Overall this is a very appetizing dish which consists sweet, sour and spicy taste in one. But since I don't have sweet sake at home, I replace it with a bit of sugar and also in some some cornstarch solution to thicken the sauce slightly.

Baked Prawns With Dong Fen

Saw this yummy dish from one of food blog known as My Little Cyberspot. She made this mouthwatering Thai-style Baked Prawn With Vermicelli which looks so delicious. So without hesitate I also give this recipe a go since our family is Thai food lovers too.

Steamed Crab With Glutinous Rice

Saw this interesting dish from a Chinese New Year recipe book and I decided to give it a try. And after searching one of the main ingredients; Crab for a few days I finally bought one this morning. So after soaking the glutinous rice for a few hours, season it with seasoning we are ready to place the crab on it and off it goes into the bamboo steamer. If you don't have any bamboo steamer you can just use any of a suitable size pot and steaming plate too.

Stir-fry Fish Fillet With Baby Leeks

During Chinese New Year, almost every household will stock up "Baby Leek - "蒜" at home. Most people often used it cooking or hang it at some corner of the house to symbolized "年年有钱算". This is because "蒜" and "算" sounds similar in Mandarin so the more you eat, the more money you will able to count in the year. Here instead of using it to steamed fish, I recreate the recipe by stir-frying some fish fillet with leek which in a way easier for kid to consume.

Steam Seabream With Mushroom

I had being searching around to see how does a Sea Bream look like because I had never bought a sea bream before. From a book it says that Sea bream contains much protein and it cures asthenia, benefits digestive system and skin. Also by eating this steam sea bream with mushroom regular it helps to make your skin glow with natural sheen. Whether this is true or not, steamed meal is usually better than those fried dish so you might want to give it a try.

Three Treasure Seafood Pot

Three Treasure Seafood Pot is similar to those 一品锅 that which usually found at the coffee shop 煮抄摊 where they have variety of seafood such as: prawn, squid, mussels, scallop, fish and mix vegetables. This version that I made consists of three seafood which are prawn, squid and fish fillet and the total ingredients including veggie is only about $8.00. Definitely much cheaper when comparing to those sold outside.

Deep Fried Grouper With Bread

All along I have being doing Prawn Toast but recently after seeing one of the recipe which used fish instead of prawn I decide to give it a try. I bought a piece of grouper fillet From NTUC and cut it into 6 equal pieces and come out with this Deep-Fried Grouper With Bread.

Stir Fry Cereal Prawns

This is one of our favourite and a must order dish while having Cze Char. Before that I didn't realize that this dish can be easily prepare at home with just a few accessible ingredients. We love the fragrant crispy cereal that is toss together with butter, curry leaves and etc. 

This dish is not difficult to prepare and you just need to buy a packet of "Instant Cereal Prawn Mix"  and follow the instructions given at the back. With that you will be able to enjoy your very own Homemade Cereal Prawn.

Steam Asparagus With Fish Paste

This is another healthy dish which used Asparagus and fish paste as the main ingredients. Besides that I also add in a few vegetables to mix with fish paste for nutrition value. Asparagus is a good supply of minerals - calcium, iron, carotene, phosphorus, potassium and sulphur - and vitamins. Green asparagus contains twice as much Vitamin C as the white variety and a high percentage of Vitamin A. So remember do not over cooked it.

Rainbow Shredded Fish

This dish was actually taught by one of my best friend; Bee Choo while we were staying in Australia. She used to cook this delicious fish dish that is full of vitamin C, protein and colours. 

Steam Ginger Prawn in Lotus Leaf

This is one of the healthy seafood dish for those who love Fresh Prawn. Because all you need is to steam the prawns with some minced garlic and ginger till cooked to enjoy some fresh and juicy prawn. 

Deep-Fry Prawn Toasts

Suddenly we have the urge to eat Prawn Toast so I modify slightly from one of my old recipe and come up with this. It's took about 30 minutes from preparation to deep-fry and it definitely worth the effort when you see and try the end-result. By seeing this, one of my friend even thought I cut out this photo from one of those food magazine.

Deep-fry Lemon Fish Strips

Had this for yesterday night dinner. This is a simple and easy to prepare dish which you can try out it too.

Ingredients: (serves 2)
1 Piece of Dory Fillet
1 Cup Self-Raising Flour
1/2 Cup Milk
1/2 Cup Water
1 Egg York
1 Teaspoon Lemon Rinds

Methods:
1. Cut fillet into strips and marinate it with some pepper and extra lemon rinds.
2. Sift flour into a large bowl and gradually whisk in combined milk, water, yolk and lemon rinds until smooth and consistency of pouring cream
3. Set batter aside for 15 minutes.
4. Heat oil until a piece of bread sizzles as soon as it is added.
5. Dust fish in flour with a few pieces at a time. Dip into batter, draining off excess and deep-fry for about 3 minutes until golden and cooked through.
6. Drain on kitchen paper and keep warm then continue with remaining fish.

Note: You can do a Seafood Basket by add in Prawns, Calamari, and Chips.